Bell, who was forced to sit out the Steelers preseason opener Saturday night against the New York Giants as a precaution because of a minor knee problem, should be able to make his debut Monday night against the Washington Redskins in the second preseason game of the season.

While Bell didn\’t play against the Giants, he has reportedly impressed the coaching staff during all offseason. Running backs coach Kirby Wilson even said recently that the Steelers second-round draft pick hasn\’t made a single mental error thus far during the training camp.

One of the biggest adjustments that any college player must make when coming into the league is acclimating himself to speed of the game. Bell told Teresa Varley of steelers.comthat he thinks he\’s been able to do that.

“I have adjusted to speed of the game,” said Bell. “I feel like that was the biggest thing for me coming out of college. The pass protections and everything else came to me easily with the more reps I got. It was just getting adjusted to the game speed.”

Bell certainly has received a lot of hype throughout training camp, and it continues to look more and more like he will become the first rookie Steelers running back to start a season opener since Tim Worley last accomplished the feat in 1989. The Steelers starting five offensive linemen looked pretty good last week against the Giants, so a lot will be expected out of Bell against the Redskins.

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While I don’t want to take anything away from Le’Veon and his hard work up until this point.. how can you claim you have adjusted to the speed of the pro game when you haven’t even played in one?

11 on 11 in training camp is a little different, but I like the confidence

Kevin Gobleck

Live drills at camp most likely

steeltown

I guess Im just of the mind that adjusting to the game would entail actually playing in one, but yea live drills are as close as it gets

cencalsteeler

Yes, I would hold those thoughts until after week 1 or 2. I would say he’s jumping the gun a little, games are faster than practices.

sean mcmartin

fairly sure he was speaking about the live tackling practices the Steelers have been running this training camp. Need to ask him this question again after he plays against the rats the first time. Stairway to seven..

Shannon Stephenson

Practice isn’t like preseason and preseason isn’t like the regular season and to go farther regular season isn’t like playoffs. All higher levels! He still has a lot to prove but so far so good.

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